


Reunions and Revelations

by Intrepid_Inkweaver



Series: Tales from Raven's Bones [5]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Chronic Pain, Gen, Genderfluid Character, Hurt/Comfort, Nonbinary Character, Original Character(s), Parental Relationships, Raven's Bones Guild
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:27:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25605055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Intrepid_Inkweaver/pseuds/Intrepid_Inkweaver
Summary: Maes finds out some things about their past.
Relationships: Maes Aster & Teluann mar Ishke
Series: Tales from Raven's Bones [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1799893
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Reunions and Revelations

**Author's Note:**

> This...was not supposed to be as hard to write as it was. THREE DRAFTS, yall. For something I didn't think was going to take more than two days.

Maes was feeling better than they had in months. Dealing with their more immediate grief, they hadn’t realized until now just how much the knowledge that Teluann was alone in Xanne mourning their death had been hanging on them. Nor had they realized exactly how much they were missing her. They had always referred to her as ‘Auntie’--presumably a joke from Jand that had stuck--but in truth, she was their second parent.

Milis sidled up to the two of them as they strolled through Zel’s garden, enjoying the cool evening and the fragrance of the plants. She rubbed on Maes’s legs once, and then immediately went to Teluann to circle around her’s, her tail getting caught in the expensive fabric of her robe and no doubt leaving copious amounts of fur behind as a hello present. Teluann made a pained face and tried to gently shoo her away, and when that didn’t work, tried backing up, but nearly got her legs tangled in her own robe. Laughing, Maes moved in to lift his clueless cat onto his shoulders. Milis meowed indignantly and settled down in a huff.

“I see you’ve gained a new…companion since the last time I saw you,” said Teluann, clearly trying to be as polite as possible. Maes was hit with a short burst of sadness at the thought of his last cat, Flower, who had been with him for nearly twenty years, and who had also loved Teluann.

“I found her as a kitten while I was convalescing. She’s helped me through a lot of hard times this past year,” he says, reaching up to scratch Milis behind the ear. She begins purring loudly in his ear.

“Well,” Teluann made another face and turned to speak directly to Milis as though she was addressing an honored colleague rather than a cat, “I must thank your faithful companionship to Maes when they were in need of it--what’s it’s name?”

Maes smiled into Milis’s fur and said, “Milis.”

“Milis. I thank you Milis.” She then reached out to awkwardly attempt to pet Milis with one finger, which Milis assumed was an attempt at play and tried to grab her hand, leading Teluann to huff. “Clearly it doesn’t like me. You’ll have to convey my thanks to it yourself, dear.”

As deadpan as possible, Maes responded, “I will do so with all gravity, Auntie.”

Heading back to the bench near the chicken keep, Teluann admired some of the exotic plants growing strong and healthy, though she also felt the need to critique the manner in which they were cultivated. Maes nearly mentioned that Zel was an extremely capable and knowledgeable druid, whereas Teluann hadn’t been able to keep a small herb garden alive without the aide of two gardeners, but there are some battles that are just not worth fighting. Not to mention, he imagined it would be quite funny to see Zel’s reaction to her gardening being criticized by someone with little to no knowledge of the craft.

Milis, who had jumped down from Maes’s shoulders to give his back a break, ran to scatter the chickens before Maes could stop her once they make it back to the bench. He sighed and took a seat, yelling after her, “Come on Mil, don’t you ever get tired of harassing them?” It wouldn’t be worth chasing her--she would think it a game, so he left her to it and gestured for Teluann to sit down next to him. She did, but only after fussily brushing the bench off.

“You’ve certainly found an interesting place to live,” said Teluann, watching Wroamin flying overhead.

“Yeah, it’s never boring, that’s for sure,” he answered with a chuckle. “We’ve got an incident with the fey every other day, a goddess that lives in a creepy statue in the druid’s house, a warforge and an awakened scourge blossom that bake bread, an assassin that runs a restaurant, an aspiring goddess of bards, and a stuffed bunny that re-arranged the heavens--and that’s not even half of them.” They smiled fondly. “I like it here. They remind me of the _Saoirse_ crew. Wild and crazy and mostly good and always up to something.” They were both quiet for a moment while Maes continued to watch Wroamin, but Teluann had turned her gaze to Maes and watched him with concern.

Finally, he said, “Do you remember the job that Karhyn managed to get us hired for?”

“You were going to be mapping the northern seas, if remember correctly. You were celebrating.”

“Aye, we were. It was a good job, just the sort of thing we were looking for. Dangerous and adventurous with good pay. Karhyn wanted the name _Saoirse_ to be on everyone’s lips in Xanne.” They laughed humorlessly and shook their head.

“We got out there without any problems. Esmond was thrilled--he found six new types of sealife in one day. Personally, I thought all the crabs looked the same, but then, I’m not a druid. Farren was bitching nonstop about the cold, kept muttering to themself behind everyone’s backs. Devika was about ready to kick their ass into the water. Naida had to forbid Asdis and Airean from trying to climb onto an iceberg to have a snowball fight. The waters were as still as glass, and the sky was clear in the way you see it when you’re out on the water, far away from everything.

“We never saw the storm coming. It hit us out of nowhere--the worst one anyone of us had ever seen before. We kept _Saoirse_ afloat for a day, but the storm just kept coming. We lost our mainmast, and a chunk of ice had struck our hull and we were taking on water faster than we could get the hole repaired. Visibility was basically zero. We never even saw the iceberg we hit until it was right on top of us. We hit it almost straight on--we never had a chance.” On the last word, their voice breaks, and they have to stop for a moment. Teluann reaches over to grab onto their hand.

Milis chose that moment to come trotting back to them, disgruntled and followed by a trail of adoring chickens. Maes let out a teary burst of laughter as she jumped onto their lap and hissed at the chickens to try to get them to leave. “You do this every time, darling. When will you learn?” She looked up at him and meowed pathetically. He took pity on her and shooed the chickens off, releasing the spell Zel had put on them in an attempt to discourage Milis from chasing them.

Grateful for the pause in the story, Maes swallowed and continued, stroking Milis with one hand, and squeezing Teluann’s with the other. “ _Saoirse_ went down fast. Only eleven of us got off in time. Everyone else either was already dead or went down with her. We thought we were going to be dead pretty soon too, but not long after the long boat launched, there was a flash of green light, and all of us fell unconscious.”

Teluann was listening intensely, and here she furrowed her brow and said, “All at once? Did the flash have a source? What shade of green was it? How bright was the flash? How big? Did it knock you out immediately, or was it more like falling asleep? Did you--Sorry. I’m interrupting. I’ll be asking you later. Consider your answers.”

Maes rolled their eyes and continued. “We woke up in a cell--cold, damp, dimly lit in a sort of green-grey colour. Our captors weren’t visible to us. Not as though they were invisible, but more like we couldn’t look at them.” Here Teluann opened her mouth to ask more questions, but quickly shut it again. Maes imagined she was probably wishing she had a notebook. “We could hear them just fine, though. Every time they walked past the door.” They shivered thinking about it. “Esmond was convinced we were in Xibalba, and I don’t think any of us really disagreed with him.

“Karhyn got sick of waiting for someone to pay us any mind pretty quickly and started shouting for someone to come in and speak to him everytime he heard someone outside. He wanted to know where were and why we were being held prisoner and he wanted his crew to go free. After the first time he did it, I begged him to stop. I knew it was going to stir up trouble if he kept at it, but he didn’t listen to me.” Maes gritted their teeth hard, trying to keep their voice from cracking again. “I was right. They apparently got tired of listening to him. One of them came into the cell and stabbed him through the chest.” Voice breaking now, with tears streaming down their cheeks, “I wasn’t even able to do _anything._ It was so fast, and he was dead before he hit the floor. And that _thing_ just left him there, walked out of the cell like it was _nothing. Gods, Karhyn.”_ They couldn’t stop themself from fully dissolving in sobs this time, and Teluann grabs their shoulders and pulls them against her, clutching at them as though she can hold the pieces left of them together with her own will.

It had been a long time since Maes had really allowed himself to cry. It had been longer since he allowed himself to dwell on the faces of the people he’d lost--Karhyn and Naida and Devika and Asdis and Airean and Farren and sweet Esmond and all the others. Each and every one of them was like a hole in his chest that wouldn’t close. Jand was another hole, although their’s was far older, and he knew, had a twin in Teluann’s chest. Her perfumed robes against his face were comforting, and reminded him of home. The sobs eventually came slower, and then stopped, leaving him feeling drained, but calmer. He sat up carefully, though Teluann left her hand on his back, rubbing in small circles.

They sat in silence for some minutes before Teluann stood up and pulled Maes to their feet. “We’re going to the tower, and I’m going to make you some xocolatl. I imagine it’s been some time since you had any.”

Maes winced. “Auntie, I don’t much care for xocolatl.”

Teluann looked at them, horrified. “But you always emptied your cup when I made it for you at home!”

Sheepishly, Maes shuffled their feet. “I dumped it when you weren’t looking. Or Zazie drank it.”

“Of course he did,” Teluann muttered murderously, and were Jand still alive, Maes would fear for his life. “Well, I’ve got plenty of tea I can make for you as well. I probably still have some of Jand’s rum in the basement too, if you wanted to dig that out.”

“No, tea is fine. Great, actually. I’ve rather missed Xannese spices.” And there was the fact that nothing that ventured into the tower basement ever returned, but that was a side problem.

The towers rainbow mosaics were still shifting sedately in the setting sunlight as they approached, and Maes had to catch their breath at the sharp pang of homesickness that struck them for the clean white stucco streets of Xanne. Entering the tower, Maes quickly went to shut the door to the stairs to limit the amount of trouble Milis could get up to while exploring. And there was certainly a lot that she could get into, even on this level. Chaos reigned supreme in every corner, and every manner of tool and material was scattered over every available surface. They quickly ran about the room to pick up anything that might harm Milis and stored it in a cabinet with it’s door hanging open, it’s shelves completely bare.

One thing that hadn’t changed was the wall that was absolutely covered in drawings that Maes had given to her--from the time when they had barely been old to enough to hold a pencil all the way up to the portrait of Jand they had made two days before they had left on their last voyage. Teluann even had the first formal map they had ever drawn hanging there in a frame.

By the time the tea was ready, Milis had calmed down from her excited exploration and settled--in a huff at not being allowed to go upstairs--onto one of the couches. Maes settled down next to her as Teluann carried in the tea tray and took her own seat. The tea was at the perfect temperature, and the smell of the sharp spices filled his nose. He closed his eyes and took a sip and for a moment allowed himself to imagine he was back in Xanne with Karhyn, and that none of this had ever happened. It was a tempting fantasy to fall into, but it wouldn’t solve any of his current problems.

When his tea was half gone, he continued with his story. “I don’t know how much time passed in between Karhyn’s murder and what happened next. I was grieving, and I think time was a little bit funny there, and something was playing with our minds. But eventually, _something_ came in to look at us. It was as it was with the others--we couldn’t look at it--but it wasn’t like the others at all. It hurt to be near it. It hurt even more when it talked. And it was bored with us, it found us too ordinary, or it did at first. Until it saw me. As soon as it saw me, it grabbed me and I could feel it looking at me like it was shocked. It said I was ‘one of it’s own’ and ordered me branded so that I couldn’t come back, and the rest of the crew killed. I can’t remember anything after that point, not until I woke up in a port town I’d never heard of and a cleric telling me that she had found me washed up on the beach nearby.”

He turned to look at Teluann and found that she was staring at him with a look of stunned and utter horror. Alarmed, he said, “Auntie, what’s wrong?”

Her mouth moved, but no sound came out for several seconds, until she managed, “The brand, let me see the brand.”

Confused, Maes turned around and pulled the back of his shirt up so that she could see the gnarled read burn scars and the black veins that flowed off of them. She gasped and touched his back, and he flinched. She carefully pulled away, and he could hear her repeating to herself, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not this, not this, not this, not this, not this,”

He turned to grasp her hands. “Auntie, have you seen this before? What do you know of it?”

Her eyes wide with fear, she answered, “I can’t tell you, she made a promise, and I can’t break her promises, I won’t--”

“ _Who_ made a promise?”

“ _Jand._ Jand made the promise, and I can’t break it--”

“What was the promise, and to whom?”

“She promised him that you would never know--that we would never tell you where you came from.”

Maes stepped backwards as though he’d been slapped. “What?”

Teluann looked him in the eyes and said, “You were never supposed to know.”

“Where I came from? But--you never knew where I came from. Zazie found me in a gutter--couldn’t find who had left me there so they took me in. That’s what you both always told me.”

Teluann nodded. “They found you in a gutter--never could resist when there was someone or something that needed their help. Stupid, stupid, stupid wolf…” Tears had formed in her eyes and she dashed them away impatiently.

“I…don’t understand,” said Maes shaking his head.

“You weren’t supposed to. Jand promised your father you would never know about any of this! And now this--”

“My _father?”_

As though she finally realized how much she had already let slip, Teluann clamped her mouth shut and shook her head. Maes raked a hand through his hair and began to pace. The ever-present pain in his back was beginning to flare up and he needed to calm down before it became debilitating.

Once they’d gotten their breathing under control once again, they sat back on the couch across from Teluann and took her hands. “Auntie, I know that Zazie made a promise to someone. But I don’t think that promise is doing anyone any good anymore, and frankly, I think I deserve to know about this. I need to know because it isn’t just history now, it isn’t even just about where I came from. It’s about getting rid of this curse and avenging my crew. They deserve that. _I_ deserve that. Please, Auntie.”

Teluann stared down at their joined hands for a few moments before whispering, “Sea forgive me.” She stood up and said, “Wait here for a moment. I can see your back is hurting you.” She went up into the tower and disappeared for several minutes, during which Milis settled herself back into Maes’s lap.

Upon her return, Teluann handed Maes a small velvet box and gestured for them to open it. Inside was a bronze medallion, just small enough to fit in the palm of their hand. It was embossed with slightly more elaborate form of the brand currently marring their back. “Where did this come from?” they asked with a furrowed brow.

With a sigh, Teluann responded, “It was wrapped in your blankets with you when Jand found you. It was why I didn’t want him to take you in. I was terrified of what you might be. That symbol has only ever been followed by misfortune and tears. Do you still have the aster pendant we gave you when you came of age?”

They shook their head with a tinge of sadness. “It went down with the _Saoirse._ ” They’d been wearing a carved jade pendant that Karhyn had bought for them the night that the _Saoirse_ sank. They still had that one, thankfully.

“Jand found the aster on your father before burying him at sea. There were some dried ones in your blankets, as well, though I seem to have lost them.”

“ _What father?_ How could I have been found in a gutter with no one around, but you also knew who my father was?”

“After they found you, They wanted to try to find out more about where you came from. So they followed the scent trail of whoever it was that left you in that gutter. They didn’t find them, but they did find your father bleeding out on the beach. From what we gathered, you had been stolen from him, and he had been left for dead. He refused to Jand anything about himself other than his name, and he wouldn’t talk about who killed him. He was terrified for you, and claimed it would be better if you never knew anything about your origins.” She stopped for a moment, then said very quietly, “His name was Aybrionn. Aybrionn Mefus.”

Maes could only sit in silence as their world turned inside-out. It wasn’t as if they had ever been bothered by their origins. They had always dismissed them, believeing themself to be far better off with Jand and Teluann than they could ever have been with someone who had abandoned them. The story had been simple. Uncomplicated. Now, it wasn’t. It was a tangled fucking mess and they weren’t sure how to deal with it.

Teluann watched him anxiously. She said, “We tried finding out more as you grew up, but we were afraid of putting you into danger. We did get some information on the cult that follows that symbol. It was difficult since they’re so close-knit and choosy about who they let in. And once they recruit you, if you refuse, they hunt you down and kill you. We know they’re given the ability to breathe under water once they join, and they supposedly live down in the trenches under the ocean. All the rest is just rumors and hear-say.”

Maes closed his eyes and breathed out slowly. Whether this information would help him or not, he was unsure. After a minute, he asked quietly, “Did you find anything else out about my--about Aybrionn Mefus?”

Teluann shook her head with sadness in her eyes. “We looked, but we couldn’t find anything. There weren’t even any families with the name Mefus that we could find. We thought it might have been some sort of alias.”

“Fuck,” they said softly.

“Yes,” Teluann answered.

Maes leaned his head on her shoulder and squeezed his eyes shut. “I thought--I thought I knew who I was. I thought I knew.”

She began to stroke his hair. “Where you come from and who your parents are doesn’t have to change who you are now, little star.”

Maes’s heart clenches at the use of the old nickname. Jand had used it on him for his entire life, and once she had died, Teluann had taken it up as naturally as though she’d always used it. Karhyn had heard her once, and he began to use it teasingly, all the way up until it had become a regular endearment from him as well. He wants them back--he wants all of them back, and it’s an impossible longing that he doesn’t know what to do with.

“I’m sorry we never told you any of this,” Teluann says, her voice breaking.

“It’s alright. I understand why you didn’t.”

“We can find the bastards now. We’ll find them, and all the devils in the nine hells won’t be able to protect them.”

Maes laughed weakly. “Please don’t give them any ideas. I can barely manage a regualr fight these days.”

“The clerics weren’t able to help you?”

He shook his head. “The curse was too powerful. I just have to recover on my own, however long that takes. I’m better than I was a year ago, at least. My mind still feels foggy, and I’m weak as a kitten half the time, but I’ve improved.”

“I’ll find a way to make it improve faster.”

“Thank you, Auntie. I’m glad you came.”

“What else did you expect me to do?”

He laughs. “Good point.” 


End file.
